Helix turning off Variax modeling when changing presets. How do I fix it?

[Tito83]

Tried at the Line 6 form with no luck so far, trying here, maybe someone has gone through this. I'm having a little issue with my Helix/Variax combo. I got used to using a regular cable with my Variax, so I just want Helix to power it so I don't need to worry about the battery. So, the Input is set to Variax, at the settings tab I set the "Variax Model" to "Don't Force", which the manual says will make the Helix respect the current Variax settings - except it's not doing that. When I have the Variax modeling on, when I change presets on Helix, it will turn off the Variax model and get to the magnetic pickups. Am I doing something wrong and not seeing it? Anyone?

 

[Hackdog69]

is the new preset input set to variax? and is the variax setting on "Global" instead per preset?

 

[Tito83]

Yep, it's set to "Global".

 

[Tito83]

Bump.

 

[aruark1]

Bump.

I was having the opposite issue, it kept turning the variax on on every preset. I found you have to be careful of whether it's on or not when you save the patch, since the VDI is 2 way, it will store what model and where your tone and volume knobs were when you save. I had to set mine to per preset and go into each factory preset and turn off variax and hit save twice. If course then I realized that it was doing that because a lot of the presets have variax models selected..... I never really totally got it sorted, but on my own patches I'm just sure to always check where variax is beforen I save.,

 

[Hackdog69]

need to get
veritechc
on this...

 

[burningyen]

That's weird, it sounds like you have the right settings:

Input: Variax or Multi
Variax Settings: Global
Variax Model: Don't Force

Does the patch you're switching to have those settings, too?

 

[veritechc]

Mine does this too. I have not figured it out yet...

 

[uglybassplayer]

Are you sure it's actually turning the modeling off and not just changing the volume to zero. I thought I remembered reading that model volume was one of the things saved with the preset.

 

[veritechc]

On my Variax. Some presets turn off the Variax modeling. I have not been really too concerned since I can look down and tell if the light on the Variax is on or off. But I'll go hunt down the cause tonight.

 

[Hackdog69]

If you figure it out please post. Mine seems to be working ok but you never know when things can get squirrelly with this type of stuff

 

[sotipay]

Interested also in any solution to this, as my variax standard's modelling turns on from an off state, whenever i change presets. That's with variax settings set to "global" and "don't force" too.

 

[veritechc]

This morning with the help of the new editor I checked my tones. Unfortunately I did a global reset when I installed the editor. I now have my unit set for the Variax to per-preset. I have some tones that choose a Variax model and some that do not. When the tone is set to choose a Variax model it works like it should. If the tone is set to don't force the one of two things happen.

1. It leaves my Variax in whatever state it was just before. So if I have a model chosen before the same model is there.

2. It turns the Variax modeling off and uses the mags?

I can't see a pattern.

@Digital Igloo any ideas?

 

[Gtrman100]

Since the Helix stores the Variax preset individually, you have to manually select "Don't force" on the Input page for each preset that you want to have the Variax default to the current guitar model. If you change the Variax model and save the Helix preset, it will automatically store the currently selected Variax preset.

It's a real pain, since about half the time, I forget to go to the Input and change it back to "Don't Force". I wish it worked like the HD500x, where it wouldn't store the Variax preset with the HD preset unless you specifically selected it.

If you store a Helix preset with the mag pickups "on" (the models are off), when you recall that preset it will default to the mag pickups. I would check that, and also check the Variax volume parameter on the Helix Input page. I hope I understand your problem and this helps.

 

[veritechc]

Since the Helix stores the Variax preset individually, you have to manually select "Don't force" on the Input page for each preset that you want to have the Variax default to the current guitar model. If you change the Variax model and save the Helix preset, it will automatically store the currently selected Variax preset.

It's a real pain, since about half the time, I forget to go to the Input and change it back to "Don't Force". I wish it worked like the HD500x, where it wouldn't store the Variax preset with the HD preset unless you specifically selected it.

If you store a Helix preset with the mag pickups "on" (the models are off), when you recall that preset it will default to the mag pickups. I would check that, and also check the Variax volume parameter on the Helix Input page. I hope I understand your problem and this helps.

I will check on the tones stored with the Mags on. What is hapening is that on some presets the variax models are being recalled fine. On a few with no model selected its turning the modeling off (light goes off on the Variax). You idea that it also stores the setting for the Magnetics is a good one although I can't see anywhere that is indicated on the Helix.

 

[veritechc]

Here are my findings.

If you save a presets with the variax modeling off and just the magnets running (so no lights on the variax) the Helix saves your guitar state! Even if the Helix shows don't force it will still store the magnetics only state. there is nothing to indicate this state is stored on the Helix.

In my case some of my voices were stored with the magnets only. When I went to those voices it then reset my guitar to that state (magnetics only one, no lights on the guitar).

@Digital Igloo is this how its supposed to work? Idf there a way to show the mag only state?

By the way the editor made it easy to troubleshoot this!

 

[ur2funky]

The HD500x stores the Variax Mag settings the same way.

 

[Rewolf]

It makes sense if you think of using Mags as the "other input" from the JTV - you could have created this patch using the Variax Mags input and would have expected that input to be stored in the same way that using Guitar, Mic or any other input source is stored as part of the Helix patch. So all that it is doing is treating Variax Mags and Variax with Modelling Off as the same thing... (which they are).

You can avoid this problem by always explicitly using the Variax Mags input when you want the real pickups and never turning off the modelling.

 

[veritechc]

It makes sense if you think of using Mags as the "other input" from the JTV - you could have created this patch using the Variax Mags input and would have expected that input to be stored in the same way that using Guitar, Mic or any other input source is stored as part of the Helix patch. So all that it is doing is treating Variax Mags and Variax with Modelling Off as the same thing... (which they are).

You can avoid this problem by always explicitly using the Variax Mags input when you want the real pickups and never turning off the modelling.

I agree but it would be nice if the Helix, since it does actually store this information to show that info. Instead it shows don't force no matter if the mages are saved in that slot or not.